K.K. Downing Says Judas Priest Couldn’t Keep Up on His Last Tour

K.K. Downing accused his former Judas Priest bandmates of forcing him to slow down onstage because they couldn’t keep up with him on their last tour together.

The guitarist quit in 2011 and was replaced by Richie Faulkner. Downing has recently been making the rounds talking about his upcoming memoir, Heavy Duty: Days and Nights in Judas Priest, which will published on Sept. 20.

In the past, Priest bassist Ian Hill made comments about Faulkner bringing new energy to the band. Downing told the Cobras & Fire podcast that he's "not totally happy about what’s being said. Ian seems to be [saying] things like, ‘None of the fans are missing K.K.’ and ‘Richie has brought a new energy to the band.’ And I'm going, ‘Ian, dude. On that last tour I was the energy.’ I slowed down because people weren’t keeping up with me.”

You can listen to the interview below.

Downing added that drummer Scott Travis had given him cause to consider his situation by telling him "It’s your show." “I’m thinking, ‘Did he think I'm trying to steal the limelight by doing what I've always done?’" he recalled. "Then I started to back off, and then I was in an unhappy place from that point. I didn't want everybody to think I was trying to steal the limelight when I wasn't. Rob [Halford]’s reading his autocue. He’s slowed down. Glenn [Tipton]’s going over there for a beer in between every song. I’m thinking, ‘Ian, get a grip with yourself, mate. I mean, you just replaced the energy with some energy.’ Fine. Well, great. But that's not moving forward, Ian.”

Downing revealed one of the main reasons behind his decision to quit in another interview earlier this month, saying that solo activities by Halford and Tipton had become “disruptive.”

“Rob actually released two albums and did his own tour in the exact year before I left," he said. "And then when they said, ‘K.K., we want you to start writing for a five-track EP,’ I went, ‘Fucking no way in hell! Rob has just released two albums in the last year, and we are only releasing an EP? Something is not right.’ Enough was enough really, and I bailed out there. And like I said in the book, I tried to put it as diplomatically as I could. But in a nutshell, enough was enough, really. And that was it.”